clarity on Self-Ownership

Doreen Ellen Be...
Posts: 39 Joined: 05-07-07
Submitted by Doreen Ellen Be... on 24 October, 2007 - 08:48.

An Anarchist who goes by the name of clarity on the ANARCHISM.com board expressed the following insight:

Quote:
" So far, there has been no need to speak of self-ownership. But we have said that a person governs himself, which is the alternative to being governed by others. "Governs oneself" means that the integrated person » thinks and chooses without compulsion. He acts freely. Governing oneself means one controls oneself, which means one determines one's own actions.

This is exactly what self-ownership means to those who use that terminology: a person thinks and decides on his own actions without compulsion. It means a person is free to act and determine his own actions."

clarity's comments, well, clarified, a matter that I've been considering for some time. In response, I wrote:

There's so much in this, clarity. Thank you.

Much has been said and written among Leftists of all stripes, including Anarchists, about workers in Capitalism society selling their labor.

More, methinks, needs to be said about them selling their right to determine their level of morality.

No worker can be more moral hir boss/es.

The right to moral self-determination is relinquished by every salaried worker and all those workers in Capitalist society who are dependent upon those more powerful than themselves in the corporate and governmental hierarchies.

The right to moral self-determination is a basic Human right. It is rarely so much as spoken of in Capitalistic society. They would prefer we do not know this right is basic, or even exists.

No one who can't determine hir moral structure and limits can be said to own hirself.

D2